Painting Pictures
by insertrandomname
Summary: Maybe attempts by school systems to spread acceptance can be good when your drama teacher is Roxy Lalonde and you're either John Egbert or Karkat Vantas. Ms. Lalonde has plans for her favorite students. [High School AU-Rated T-Description will be changed as needed-Warning: Short chapters at times-Pairings: JOHN X KARKAT, Roxy x Jane]


(A/N: Humanstuck headcanons from demonoflight on deviantart)

"Equality."

A man in a grey suit paces on the stage with one hand beind his back, the other holding a microphone.

"Acceptance."

The majority of the audience is asleep.

"Respect."

A black haired boy with a bit of an overbite adjusts his glasses and closes his eyes. He sits back in the cushy seat of the school's theatre and tunes everything out. Everyone else is doing the same so why not?

"These are things meant to be demonstrated at a school like ours."

A whisper comes from beside the boy. "Hey beaver-teeth, pass the note over there."

The boy with maybe a little more than a bit of an overbite scowls and ignores his classmate. He glances up to the stage an sees the principal droaning on as usual. The new semester assembly is even more boring than the introduction assembly at the beginning of the school year.

On the other side of the theatre, another black-haired boy sits, drooling on his hand as he sleeps. What an attractive young man.

"Hey motherfucker," A boy with longer curly hair says, smiling widely and prodding the unconscious kid.

The sleepy kid wakes up and opens one eye before moaning. "Gamzee stop."

"Kar, Gam's touchin' me!" A smaller boy on Kar's other side whispers loudly.

"Oh my God," The poor boy in the middle sighs angrily.

Not far away, the first kid isn't having much more fun.

"John, sit up," The kid's English teacher scolds.

John reluctantly straightens out, half listening to the speech at the front of the room.

"In light of this cause, we will be performing the edited version of 'Romeo and Juliet', 'Romeo and Julian'," The principal announces, adjusting his tie and standing at the edge of the stage before taking questions.

Only one hand goes up near the front and they're called on.

"Isn't it 'Romeo and Julio'?"

"No," The principal said shortly before continuing to pace. "Auditions will be held this Friday where I will be doing the casting. I will choose whoever I think is best. Oh, and, did I mention I threw in a few musical numbers?"

"Karkat Vantas, shut your mouth," A teacher hisses from Kar's side.

Karkat begins to protest but everyone gets up to leave. Apparently they've been dismissed. He grimaces and joins the stream of students exiting the theatre. Another tiring day halfway over.

Meanwhile, John is nearly trampled as he stands to the side of the path. At least it's finally lunch time. He wades through the crowd, eventually reaching the exit. Mindful of others' positions in the hallways, he weaves around, heading for the Drama classroom. The drama classroom is actually the stage with the curtains closed, by the way. He comes to the door and opens it tentatively, he's not sure how comfortable he is with the theatre teacher. It normally takes a while for him to warm up to people, even so he never gets completely comfortable with anyone.

John silently walks up the ramp and turns the corner onto the stage where he finds the teacher arranging desks. "Ms. Lalonde?"

Surprisingly, there is no relation between Rose and Ms. Lalonde.

"John! How's my number one student today?"

As usual she's most likely intoxicated.

"Umm, I have a D in your class."

She shakes her head and sticks her tongue out. "Details, shmetails."

"Okay, so what am I supposed to do here?" John asks, having gotten over the weird comment already. It's pretty much the norm anyway.

"Hey, don't act like you're not glad to be here. I'm the most pleasant person you'll ever frickin' meet," She said informatively, scraping a desk across the room. With a nonchalant flip of the hair, she returns to you. "I want to put in a good word for you. I think you'd be great in the play." She crosses her arms and waits for a response excitedly.

"I thought I had detention?" John says, slightly alarmed.

"You did!" Ms. Lalonde says with great enthusiasm. "I just don't have typical detentions, besides, you didn't do anything wrong for real anyway."

John replies quietly. "I thought putting your head on the desk is wrong."

"That's a school rule, not my own," She explains, waving a hand. "I personally don't agree with it. I got in trouble a lot for it when I was your age."

"Oh," He says, a little surprised. "What do I do here then?"

"Oh, don't be in such a hurry. Getting things done like a weirdo is for try-hards. Why don't you help me paint a backdrop with Janey?" She beams.

John raises an eyebrow. "Who's Janey?"

"You'll see," She says with a wink.


End file.
